“This is how you are to pray:
‘Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’
(Mt 6:7-15)
Lectionary makers have very little faith in people. Today’s passage has Jesus speaking in Elizabethan English as if the congregation can’t distinguish between a liturgical text (the Lord’s Prayer) and a biblical text. So we change the biblical text to concord with the liturgical text. Keeping archaic language serves no purpose whatsoever except to exacerbate liturgical culture wars.
